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3 Responses to ““Street Cuffs” are No Match for the Bike Thieves of San Francisco – The Little Monsters Will Get You Regardless”

yeah, well that would happen with U-Locks too, cause likely this person left the bike there overnight and it got stripped by tweakers at 3am…of course the cuffs worked cause the frame is still there, same thing with U-Locks to the frame

of course, you can get wheel locks for the hub too, but that’ll cost you. A common thing used now for wheel, whcih I started using 10 years ago, is metal pipe ties around quick release of wheels..It’s not a lock of course, but it does take more than 1 minute to unscrew it, so many thieves say ‘screw it’

unless you leave it locked overnight, then they have all the time in the world

these pipe ties are maybe 3 bucks at the hardware store..In fact, I have a larger pipe tie around my rear rack to hole the panniers (saddle bags) onto the rack, because I’ve had that ripped off too.

Basically, thieves will take anything not tied down, and there’s been some recent blog posts about a rash of bike seat thefts too. Many messengers now are using pipe ties, and they work because it slows thieves down, so in most situations during the day where it’s in public, most thieves won’t bother with pipe ties..Thieves want something fast and easy

Unless it’s locked overnight outside, then you gotta pay for extra stuff..But yeah, those skewers are about the same as a normal U-Lock and even the comments say it’s not great for seats. Personally, I use a U-lock which is about the same as those cuffs, but U-lock is better tho

but really, for most purposes during the day, going to the store, downtown, whatever, pipe ties work fine, and it’s cheap and no extra weight..Half of it’s just intimidating psychology with pipe ties, but most messengers I know haven’t had a problem since they started using pipe ties